“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are,” By E. E. Cummings. I agree with this quote because I have had real life experiences that relate to it. One of my biggest life experiences that has had an immense impact on my life is when my older sister, Becky moved out after she turned eighteen. She moved in with her boyfriend of three months and she dropped out of the army.

At the end of Becky’s junior year she wasn’t all that into going to college so she decided to enlist in the army. Since Becky signed in advance she was entitled to a 7,000 dollar sign on bonus. She was excited for going into the army and we were all happy for her that she was going to be doing something good with her life. I remember her telling me the funny tests she had to take for going into the army. She would have to also keep in touch with her recruiter which was a female and was proud of how soon my sister signed on.

Becky’s birthday is December 12th and she met this boy that she liked and they started dating after she turned eighteen. He was 23 at the time. Becky liked him a lot and the whole family did because he was nice and treated her well. She was always spending time with him. During February Becky stayed at his house one night too late, and she was told to either come home or not come back at all because she always did that. She decided that she didn’t want to come back home. Everyone was mad and upset with her for a very long time. A week later Becky came to our house with a cop asking if she could get some of her stuff, and my dad said she could come back later to talk to both my parents. When Becky came back she got a bag full of stuff. A few more weeks went by and she picked up all of her stuff from her bedroom that we packed up into boxes.
Becky didn’t come around for awhile after that, and she never came over to wish my mom a happy birthday. It upset my mom and the rest of my family terribly. As the year went on Becky stopped going to school and had at least 30 absences after she moved out. Becky wasn’t doing well in a lot of her classes and wasn’t going to be able to graduate or walk with her class. Becky ended up having to go to summer school to get her diploma. She actually got her regents diploma which made my whole family and I all very happy for her. In June she dropped out of the army and lost a great opportunity for a great future. She only had another month to go until she went into the army. My family and I all believed that the reason she didn’t go into the army was because of her boyfriend. I remember him telling her when they first started dating that he didn’t want her going into the army, and he tried talking her out of it. If she would have stayed in the army she would have left on July 13th or 14th of 2009 and gone to basic training. If she was in the army right now she would be in computer training.
Becky’s mistake of not following what she wanted to do has helped me realize to listen to my heart and not to let others choose my future. I think my sister realizes now that she has made a mistake because she doesn’t have a good living spot and doesn’t have a good amount of money every week. I feel like I am doing better than her right now than she was at this time in her life and I plan on staying on track with my life and to follow what I start and try not to quit anything. This mistake will help me when I got to college and choose to do something else with my life.